Although they play old music on period instruments, the people at Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra made a brave leap forward into the full range of digital possibilities with Thursday night’s unveiling of Tafelmusik Media.
The organization is now prepared to stream audio and video live on its site. More importantly, the moment is a triumphant regaining of control over a 78-CD recording library.
Over lunch one day three years ago, Tafelmusik general manager Tricia Baldwin told me the sad story of how Sony Classical was letting the orchestra’s critically loved discography gradually go out of print. It was a tragedy for an organization that relied on the discs to grow its audiences and encourage presenters to invite them to perform. That’s not to mention the incremental revenue that disc sales bring in.
The ever-resourceful manager used every contact and means at her disposal over the past two years to wrest control of the albums Tafelmusik had made but could no longer access at Sony and the killed-by-neglect CBC Records.
Through Tafelmusik Media, the orchestra and chamber choir will be able to re-release the bulk of their discography and keep it available to the public indefinitely on CD, at places like iTunes and in other, yet-to-be-defined ways and places.
In conversation a couple of weeks ago, Tafelmusik music director Jeanne Lamon explained that Sony refused to give up any recording masters, and is requiring the orchestra to pay a per-sale royalty. Tafelmusik is also bound to keep existing booklet notes and cannot alter any album’s programme (by pairing a piece from one disc with a piece from another, for example).
But the overall victory is so huge — one that continues to elude many other recording artists — that Lamon and Baldwin are over the moon.
All future projects, including a DVD of the organization’s popular Singalong Messiah and the stunning Galileo Project, will be entirely the property of Tafelmusik.
The orchestra has now collected all of its audio and video materials in one place — with much more to come in the near future. Check it out here, and watch the sample below:
John Terauds